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If you are reading this, you are one of the lucky ones. You don’t have to worry about the basic amenities or fight for everyday meals.

There is a different world out there where people are willing to kill each other for nothing or where people are selling themselves over cigarettes.

You are not part of that society that works 18 hours in hardships and sends back money home for their parents and families.

It’s easy to get angry at a delivery boy for getting pizza a few minutes late or a maid for breaking your coffee mug.

The family we are born in defines our future. The race begins very early: DNA, Genes, wealth, and societal baggage.

Road

Some of us treat our life as a traveler with a defined destination. As a result, the essence of the journey gets diluted.

We want successful personal or professional life. We work hard like part of a race. Some of us work non-stop like a machine with the end goal of being wealthy.

When we get all the wealth, we have lived our life and have no clue what to do with it. We want to reach our destination forgetting to enjoy the journey.

podcast notes : X-Unicorn(7)

Last evening was listening to Karthik’s X-Unicorns podcast, where he interviewed Prashant, founder of EaseMyTrip. There are a few takeaways for me from the interview as a founder.

 EaseMyTrip is a bootstrapped ticket reservation platform run by Prashant and his two brothers. The company has been listed in India and is now a public limited. 

  1. Enjoy the journey. Don’t make too many plans. 
  2. Empower and inspire from within the organization. As a bootstrap company budget is limited, and you need more believers, especially the early team. 
  3. Be Frugal. Don’t compete with others on discounts and other marketing ploy. Let customers pick you over your service. 
  4. Be Flexible. EaseMyTrip started as B2B, and much success came from B2C.
  5. The customer is the king. Treat customers well. They are your evangelist. 
  6. Share the pie. Don’t keep all the profit to yourself, but distribute with stakeholders, customers, and teams. 
  7. Keep things simple. People use EaseMyTrip for ticket booking, focus on it, and give experience around it simple instead confusing customers. 

consistent

Being consistent is a unique virtue. Not many have it. A few who are gets lots of respect in their organization or society.

One can trust you with a task and forget because of your past performance.

The same applies to cricket or football. Every team has one or two players delivering one after another game with consistency. They are a boon to their teams and the captain.

I keep hearing about 10X engineers in a startup: we should also talk about folks who are constantly shipping at ease.

culture

I see startup websites throwing culture pages with smiling pictures of employees.

An organization’s culture is more than the handbook or website placeholder. It’s everyday life and a journey. Also, it comes from the top leaders. A founder’s role is critical. It’s their action that gets cloned/copied or followed.

uncertainty

We are living in an era of uncertainty. Nothing is permanent, be it our health, job, or relationship. But does this mean we should stop living?

The last few years of the pandemic and losing loved ones have taught us about our limited life and bought us closer.

The current economy talks about recession, and the press publishes news and story about mass layoffs.

Times like these make us more resilient and teach us about a better future. We can seize the opportunity and fight it with brevity or surrender and live in misery, getting sick and depressed.

Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.

The Enchiridion, Epictetus

now

Our world offers many choices and confuses us. We are fighting for a qualified source and content more than ever. Technology has enabled us to run in a superfast lane competing with our peers. The quest for becoming ultrahuman is adding fatigue.

We are running faster than ever to achieve our goal.
The race, battle, and challenges are all upon us.
We are indebted to the expectation treadmill of loved ones.

It feels like there is no tomorrow. Now is what it is. In short, the choices, success, achievement, and everything we are craving in the present.

How different are we from becoming a headless chicken floating and dancing all around before collapsing?

Run

How far can we run away for peace when our mind is cluttered?
What will heal us when we are in pain inside?
We are the sum of our thoughts and action.

What is going to change if we head to the mountain or sea? We will continue being miserable as our mind is cluttered and we are in pain.

We need to visit nowhere for peace but be honest with our thoughts and more consciousness about ourselves and our actions to find inner peace and satisfaction.

Originality

Emptiness is inside, and the want has taken away our originality. We are painting ourselves in real or reel both for attention. The self now craves external appreciation.

Our virtue of self has transformed into voyeurism and an infinite scroll.
The era of glory by externals over self is why social media exists.

In the absence of our originality, we have lost authenticity and innocence.

For most of us, it requires courage to stay as we are: The Originals.

posturing

We live in a world carrying different personas. It’s like we are in the real world but on reels. The posture can be because we want to look good or be part of this society that preys on materialism.

The emptiness within could be another reason for this layer. We are desperate for attention and do whatever it takes to be in the limelight. Social media runs on it.

The last is insecurity, where we are scared of ourselves and trying to fit into a bucket defined by society.

In all cases, we are the net loser.